A summer music festival, heralded as such a success it could rival Glastonbury, has still not paid its bills months later.

At least a dozen businesses involved in the Beachdown Festival have complained they have either not been paid or their cheques had bounced since the event in August.

The organisers of the festival say they will be able to pay people as soon as they receive a tax rebate.

The festival was promoted as a local event for local people. However, local businesses say they are struggling with the consequences of not having their costs covered.

Ian Brown, director of Winner Plant in Worthing, is owed more than £5,000.

His firm supplied the festival with fork-lift trucks and has not yet been paid. But he said after speaking to the organisers he was hopeful of getting his money soon.

He said: “This is a young company that is still finding its feet and we wanted to help with the festival.

“The worst thing is we hired the trucks from another company and paid for them in advance so now we’re out of pocket.

“I have spoken to Joe Pidgeon and I am happy that he is going to pay and would be keen to work with him again next year.”

Brighton-based site manager Nick Love is owed £3,000. He said: “I work at Glastonbury each year and have never had a problem.

“My team and I worked hard at Beachdown and we were incredibly disappointed with how we were treated.”

It is estimated the event owes about £30,000 and many businesses are angry that tickets for Beachdown 2009 were put on sale last month despite the unpaid debts.

A spokesman for the festival said: “On behalf of the Beachdown team who are liaising on a daily basis with all the companies involved in Beachdown, we would like to apologise for the fact that we haven’t been able to make all payments as we would have liked to have done.

“We are in full liaison with every single supplier and would like to reiterate that Beachdown is fully committed to making all payments.

“We are also dedicated to the job of putting on Beachdown 2009, which will enable us to once again produce an opportunity for 40 local businesses and suppliers to sell their produce and products to help to generate over £3 million of revenue for the Sussex community.”

Mid Sussex District Council has also confirmed that the 2009 event has not yet been granted a licence, even though tickets are on sale.

A council spokesman said: “A planning application was submitted last week and the chance to make representations is open until December 11.”